“If they come for you in the night/They will come for me in the morning.”

Just a simple lyric of solidarity. I’ve learned through now 10 records (American Fall is our tenth), that the goal isn’t “write a song, change the world.” It doesn’t work like that. However, these records are a document of where we are in history, what our stance was. Will we be on the right side of history in regards to human rights, health care, trans, gay, immigrant and refugee rights? Will we exhaust all at our disposal to eradicate racism? This particular song exists in hopes that when we’re long gone and in the ground, someone will find this song; and when they think about 2017 and the rhetoric of the fascist Donald Trump regime, they can know that four kids from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stood in opposition to all forms of bigotry.

“Behold the sparkle of champagne The crime rate’s gone, feel free again Oh, life’s a breeze with you, Miss Lily White Jane Fonda on the screen today Convinced the liberals it’s okay So let’s get dressed and dance away the night”

This is the first band that actually made politics, and channeling my frustration about injustice, seem understandable. I found this band when I was young and just discovering punk. I didn’t feel like the status quo represented or valued empathy, and frankly, it pissed me off. This track was the perfect amount of anger, sarcasm and truth that I needed at that time. This lyric was so ahead of its time. As we do our postmortem of the Obama era and the neoliberalism that thought Hillary Clinton was a shoe-in, let’s do the work to ask for something better. No more “next time.”

“Reading my rights and shit, it’s all junkPulling out a silly club, so you standWith a fake-ass badge and a gun in your handBut take off the gun so you can see what’s upAnd we’ll go at it, punk, and I’ma fuck you up!”

Again, a coming-of-age tale… My brother was always at odds with the law. He was always being harassed by our local police department. This extended into my whole family. My mother, the strongest, most badass woman I know, raised the three of us on her own. When the cops were going after my brother, they would say shit to me, as well. I remember being 9 or 10 years old and having a cop say, “We’re gonna take your brother.” It made me anxious, afraid and, once again, angry. One night, I heard this sound coming from my brother’s car as he worked on it. This lyric: It was so beyond any level of confrontation I could imagine. They stood up to racist cops, stared them in the face and then spit.

“If you’re sleeping, I will waitIf your bed is wet, I will dry your tearsI love youI am the milkman of human kindness.”

Just a perfect song. The perfect display of how powerful one sentiment can be with just a guitar and voice delivering it. This was an eye-opener for me; it brought the idea of empathy to the core of my songwriting, the idea of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Not speaking for them, not saving them, but identifying in their struggle and trying your damndest to provide some semblance of solidarity with them.

This lyric, it’s a love song, it’s a political song—there is no separation in the two.

“Number oneYou have the right not to be killedMurder is a crimeUnless it was doneBy a policemanOr an aristocrat”

If there was a reason that the Clash are my second-favorite band, it would be this song. Just Joe [Strummer] being able to take seemingly simple ideas and make them seem huge and new and thought-provoking. This is another main songwriting goal I have tried desperately to adapt: Writing the lyric that is so simple, you curse yourself for not writing it first. “Know your rights:” This lyric is the first right. It harkens to Pete Seeger’s “What Did You Learn In School Today?”. Police murder is an epidemic in 2017; it was in ’77 when the Clash wrote this, too.

“Young people speaking their mindsGetting so much resistance from behindIt’s time we stop, hey, what’s that soundEverybody look what’s going down”

Honestly, I just recently dove into this track hard. I kinda stayed away from “pop Vietnam era” folk/rock music. I mean, I like Creedence Clearwater Revival… but for me it was always Phil Ochs or nothing else. This song has recently blown my mind and is so apropos for today, I’m trying to convince the rest of the guys to cover it. It’s a pop/rock song, but the formula of its structure is pure folk music. The lyrics and message are genius. I’m glad I found it. This lyric is so poignant, every movement of progress is deemed “unfavorable” while it’s happening. Protest is not meant to be uncomfortable. If you look at history, people hated when Jesse Owens raised his fist, the same way they talk about [Colin] Kaepernick’s knee. Be on the right side of history, people.

“When they dropped the bomb on the building to kill a MOVEmentDid they care where the rights of the murdered went? Police terror in the eyes of the childrenPolice terror in the streets of every town.”

This song. This band. This is everything that punk rock should be. Social, racial and economic at the forefront of every single second of music that they create. If you are lucky enough to see or have seen Strike Anywhere play this song and I am in a 50-mile radius, I will appear on stage and sing this song. These particular lyrics mention the MOVE bombing in an amazingly sharp and powerful way. I know educating countless and shining the light on something is tremendously important.

“You can’t make it go away, So why endanger womyn’s lives? Because the issue here for you isn’t life… It’s control! Control of what we do and say, but you'll never gain control”

This track is on the second Anti-Flag record [1999’s A New Kind Of Army] and the first I played on. When I got the demos, this one automatically stuck with me. An abortion rights song, pushing the boundary of discourse on women’s and reproductive rights. I was honored to be a part of some of Justin’s best lyrics.

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Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun – known to the world as twenty one pilots – spent three years plying their existential pop to audiences all over Earth. The cumulative effect of touring the world and experiencing other cultures was crucial to not only the creation of their new album Trench, but for clearing new routes of consciousness Joseph had in his head. Ever wonder about the weather in Trench? How long the duo think they can go on? If they ever fight? Our 24-page feature includes tons of brand-new, gorgeous photos from our exclusive shoot.